Breathe
by NoraArchontis
Summary: 'Missing' was the word Damian wouldn't describe the situation he was in. He simply didn't want to see anyone, especially Jason Todd.


Chapter 1: Irregular

Jason was a mess when he decided to join the world of the living. The ceiling was familiar and the bed was comfy, but the throbbing headache was a pain in the ass for him. It left him wondering how long he was out for and what actually happened to him. The big man pushed himself against the mattress and made his headache worsen. His eyes closed when the fingers began to massage the temple of his head slowly with frustration. He swore he had never felt this bad besides that time when he was beaten to death.

"Fuck," came out from his mouth with a groan.

The hammering in his head became worse when an obnoxious noise began to fill the room. It was a bottle of pills shaking its way toward him with the beloved brother included. The shaking stopped when the oldest brother placed the bottle on the nightstand beside a glass of water.

"Aspirin. Take two tablets and swallow it," Dick said.

The way his brother said was more like a command but there was nothing else he could do but to follow it. He shook the bottle to get exactly two tablets out and put it in his mouth. The glass of water was cool against his burning flesh, and it was gone in a flash when he downed the whole thing. The glass was back to the nightstand.

"Take off your jacket and clothes," another command came out. "I don't want you sleeping in those."

Dick had been hovering and throwing a shirt, pants, and a sweater from the closet. Jason was surprised to see the clothing of his size in his brother's closet. His headache was less of a problem now than his drowsiness. The struggle to get out from his own clothes and put another one in had become a new frustration for him to deal with. Changing his clothes wasn't necessary but he wouldn't reject the thoughts of sleeping in a clean laundry.

It took him a while to get out from his costume and when he did, Dick was in the bathroom doing something with a running faucet on. Another groan escaped his mouth as he put the last piece of clothing on his body. Jason was ready for bed. The headache was gone but his eyes could no longer stay open despite wanting to. He was drop dead tired against the bed with a fuzzy brain to process anything else.

His eyes closed when he heard the creaking of the door. But, he no longer cared for whatever his brother would've done to him. All he wanted was to sleep and he did.

* * *

Jason woke up to a sound of someone struggling to open the entrance door. His mind wasn't racing in suspicion, at least not yet. The throbbing headache and foggy mind were clouding his consciousness of his surrounding. All he remembered was seeing Dick's face after what happened last night. So, he was sure he was somewhere safe and probably in the older brother's apartment.

Something clicked and creaked as he listened in from the bed. Someone was talking and asking questions, not loud enough to be distracting but enough him to hear the voice. He pushed against the comfort of the bed and pillow and stared at the bedroom door with half-hooded eyes. The headache was still hammering his head when the door opened.

"Jason?"

A head popped up from the door with a phone still on his ear, and it was Tim.

"Did I get hit hard enough to imagine Timbo's head floating around?"

Tim sighed as he ended the phone with a quick, "call me if you find anything else." He entered the room and put the phone in his pocket. Jason could see the weary eyes looming over him as if something bad had happened. So, he waited for his brother to tell him the news.

"How are you feeling? I got us food if you are hungry," Tim's voice was careful as if he was checking the perimeter.

"Hungry," he said hoarsely. "Freaking headaches too."

Tim nods as if he knew what to do after listening to his voice and reading the body language. Jason's fingers massaged the temple of his head to ease a worsening headache. The aspirin was still on the table beside him.

"Well, I'm hungry too. Let's eat after you do your thing," Tim's weary eyes were still on him. "You should eat first before taking aspirin. I'll be outside."

With one last glance of his brother still tangled up on the bed, Tim was off to the living room doing his own thing. Jason got up from the bed and headed towards the bathroom. The coldness of the tiles reminded him of what happened last night.

He ignored the coldness. The memory was foggy if he had to be honest. It was as if someone had made holes in his memory everywhere. The first thing he remembered was out drinking in a bar somewhere and after one too many drinks, the holes began to form.

The shirts and everything were now inside the laundry bin too. The cold shower hit him like an ice brick to the face, but it felt good against the burning skin. He began to adjust the temperature to a warmer one as it slowly relieved the headache. A low grunt escaped his mouth as the warmer water relaxed the sore muscle.

Something was wrong, it was a gut feeling but he knew it. Tim's voice gave it away but for now, he just wanted to focus on getting rid of the headache before facing the consequences of whatever happened the night before.

* * *

When Tim heard the shower was running, he immediately knew that it was going to take a while. Though he had never been in such a drunken state like Jason, the hangover feeling remained the same and he hated the feeling. He opened all the bags only to find many different things yet neatly organized by their butler. Alfred even had Jason's fresh and comfy clothes prepared too, but he put that aside to give it to his brother once he was out.

The other bag revealed the warm food containers, and he took it out one by one from the bag. Alfred had made four different comfort food and mostly soups; all he needed to do was to put it on the dining table and eat it. He kicked the empty bag to the side as he finished putting the last container when all of a sudden, his phone rang.

It was Oracle.

"Any news?" was his greeting.

"No," Barbara firmly replied. "Can you check the call, trackers, and GPS again? There has to be a trace or something."

Tim ran towards his laptop and connecting it to his phone. He used the communicator once again. His eyes were focused as he read the things that popped up on the screen.

"The last call was made from the manor, which would be impossible considering he wasn't there. All the trackers were last seen at all these different points before being deactivated and probably left behind."

"What about his phone, Tim? There has to be something."

Barbara was desperate. After what happened last night, everyone was desperate to find the boy but only Jason didn't know yet. His plan was to tell his brother everything after he knew that he was stable.

He sighed as he tried to gain access over traffic lights and other surveillance footage he could possibly find. This wasn't exactly how he imagined his day would be, but he knew not to complain about such trivial things. He didn't really notice that Robin was gone because they were so focused on Jason and his problems. Nightwing went to the cave to check on something and told him how weird Damian was when he saw him, even the smallest detail of how he wasn't aware of someone else being there until after the fact.

That was not Damian at all.

The little brother was trained to be an assassin and to use all his senses to detect anyone around him. But, something was wrong that night — so _wrong_ that it threw him off the balance he always had. No one was sure how long Damian stayed with Jason that night, but maybe it had something to do with the drunken talk the older brother had.

"His phone has been dead for the longest time I know of," the fact wasn't giving any comfort to Oracle either. "I can try calling him on an emergency, but I doubt he would take the call."

Tim heard a long and drawn breath taken from her. How long had she been looking?

"Does it hurt to try calling him on an emergency call?"

He thought for a second but if the phone itself was turned off, then there was no way the call would get in. His head slumped to the comfort of the small pillows on the sofa. There were no other ways of trying to reach their brother but they had to keep looking, at least until something pointed out his possible location.

"Oracle, go take your rest. I'll update you if necessary," Tim said. "I'm looking into the surveillance camera around the area. He'll be fine."

He could hear a dissatisfied grunt coming out from her, but she deserved it.

"Okay, I'm hanging up. I will call, promise. Don't worry too much."

With a nod, Tim hung up on the call and took off the communicator. His laptop was still running on looking for a familiar figure, so far there was nothing yet. He ran his hand through his hair as he walked to the kitchen to make himself a coffee. He turned on the water boiler in case Jason wanted to make some tea.

The buzzing noise began to fill the room as the machine poured a black substance into the cup. The boiling water was ready, the steam filled the air when a click of the door became unlock revealing Jason in a completely different outfit from what he wore last night. His brother looked more kempt and fresher though his pale face would tell people otherwise if they hadn't seen how trashed he was last night.

Tim turned to see Jason opening the take-out boxes and dumping all its contents into several plates. When Dick called him to look over the second oldest brother, he had the liberty to stop by a 24-hour Chinese restaurant for a quick food stop. He knew how it felt to be trashed, hungry, and hungover.

"You want coffee or tea?"

Tim asked while opening up the shelf to reach different coffee mixes and tea boxes that Dick had. It surprised him how much their oldest brother stuffed his pantry despite not always living in this apartment.

"I'll take tea," the raspy voice said as he chowed down the sweet-and-sour fried chicken from the take-outs. Jason also opened the food container that Alfred forced onto Tim before leaving the manor. The aroma of warm chicken soup filled the air as the big brother opened several other containers on the table.

"Any tea?" Tim asked as he rummaged through all the different black, white, and green teas in the shelf.

"Black," the roughness of the voice was still there but not as raspy anymore, maybe the soup helped to soothe a sore throat. "I'll take Earl Grey if there's any."

Tim nodded and poured himself some coffee before making the tea requested by his older brother. The awkward silence quickly filled the room since they were never together in a room by themselves. All the little brother did was to pour some hot water into the cup and handed it to Jason along with the unopened tea bag.

"How are you feeling now, Jay?" Tim scooped himself some soup into the bowl that was already on the table. "Feeling better?"

Jason didn't give any answers as he stuffed his face with all the food. Tim was glad to see such an appetite his older brother was showing yet, he was also worried that he might not want to learn the truth about last night. But, he needed to know because that could be the only way to find their missing little brother.

The Red Robin exhaled slowly as he drank the soup right from the bowl. Right after placing his empty bowl on the table, his phone rang and he quickly picked it up from the coffee table.

"Is he awake?" Dick's voice suddenly asked, and he didn't seem to be in a good mood.

"Yeah, he's awake and eating," Tim answered while glancing at Jason. "Any information?"

The sigh from the voice was too clear of an answer for him. The gust of wind could be heard on the phone call, and Tim assumed that Dick was going over to their place with a bike.

"I'm close. Don't let Jason leave the apartment," it almost sounded like a command. "And tell him everything about Damian from last night."

Tim's hand suddenly found a new spot on the bridge of his nose and temples. The phone call ended but his problems didn't seem to end as easily. How could he ask and explain what had happened?

Another long drawn breath left his lips as he realized that there was nothing else for him to do but to ask. He hoped that Dick wouldn't explode in front of him since his brother looked almost like a ticking time bomb for now.

"Say…." Tim turned to Jason and stayed there. "Do you remember what happened last night?"

Jason's hand stopped feeding him and looked at Tim. They didn't say anything for a while as the older brother finished chowing down the food in his mouth, so Tim took the time to actually explain what he had heard from the oldest brother.

"What happened last night?" Tim decided to straightforwardly ask him. "Something was wrong with Damian after he talked to you. What did you say to him?"

He let the questions sank in and didn't push on it. If Jason were still not in his right mind, Tim could be phased out of the apartment. But, he stood his ground because now, Damian had gone missing and didn't leave any traces behind.

Sometimes the family just _forgot_ what being trained to be an assassin meant. It included an escape plan and erasing all traces left behind.

Tim sighed when the man didn't tell him a word.

" _Jason_ , Damian is missing. After talking to you, he went back to the manor and disappeared," Tim explained. He was desperate to have his brother understand the situation. "I don't know what you guys were talking about. But, if there's anything that can point to where he is, we'll take it."

Jason didn't move a muscle as he sat there and stared at the table. Tim didn't know what to do, to be honest, but the sound in Dick's voice didn't sound good either. He wasn't sure if Dick had found something that could have made him that angry. He collapsed on the sofa, leaving the bowl he once ate from empty on the dining table.

" _Fuck_ ," Tim heard the curse word flying out. " _Fuck, fuck, fuck,"_ and Tim's attention was on him now.

Jason didn't look good; his eyes were big as if he had seen a ghost and one of his hands covered his agape mouth. The little brother could only wonder at what those words meant.

Then a sigh came in, followed with a quiet phrase, "I'm gonna be dead, aren't I, Timmy?"

The sentence had him cursed on himself. It was clear that Jason realized what he had done and what was coming to him. He didn't need to tell him that Dick was coming very soon. They could feel the storm coming, and he hoped that it would not worsen the situation.

Tim long breath betrayed him too as he pinched the bridge of his nose to relieve a little bit of his headache.

"Let's hope not," was the only sentence he could get out as they wait for someone to be at the door.

* * *

 **A.N:** This is a sequel to VioletScythe's fan fiction titled "What's In A Name". Please go to AO3 website and paste this on the link: /works/5499653

I promised Violet this sequel because the story hurts too much and still does until now. So, I'm here to fulfill that promise!

Thank you for reading this fanfic. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I'll try my best to have a weekly/monthly update on this. Please let me know if there's anything you like about this fanfic, I'd love to hear what you have to say.

 **P.S:** To anyone waiting for Don't Fall update: I have finished writing the next chapter but haven't heard back from the beta reader yet. Please give me a little bit more time while I work on chapter 7 too. Thank you!


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